I am not trying to convince you of anything, I am trying to document my thoughts as I cast my ballot as a learning experience. Many times, years later I will look back on a bad decision I have made and say “WHAT ON EARTH WERE YOU THINKING???”. By documenting what I am thinking and what went into my decision to vote for Bernie Sanders over Joe Biden in the primary, if it turns out to be a horrible decision in retrospect, I can come back and see the errors in my decision making process. Many people assume that memory is perfect but its is not. Memory is volatile and the brain often re-writes reality to suit our needs and research has shown this. This documentation is my way of making sure that my brain does not fool me. If it turns out that I am correct, I can come back and try and analyze what I did right.
Why I voted for Bernie
I think that Joe Biden has the best chance of beating Donald Trump in an election but Bernie Sanders is the person I want as president because I think he is the only candidate who will look out for the little guy and not be afraid to stand up to the lobbyists and corporations. My theory is that because of coronavirus, the stock market is going to drop 50% from its record high putting it around 15,000 which will end president Trumps chance for re-election and that ANY democrat will be able to beat him. That is why I voted for Bernie Sanders, I don’t think he needs to beat president Trump. I think that president Trump administration response to the coronavirus outbreak has already defeated him so Bernie will not have to. People have a way of re-writing the facts in their minds but if you go back to the first week of the coronavirus cases being reported in America and look at what the White House was saying, you will see responses like “its not as bad as the flu”, “its a great time to buy stock”, and “we will have a vaccine in a month”.
Why I think the dow will drop to 15,000 before the election
There will still be those people laughing at me calling my fears irrational. Nobody knows yet who is right but I can guarantee you there is a difference. If I am wrong, I will learn from my mistake. If they are wrong, they will learn nothing and simply blame someone/something else rather than admit to themselves that they were wrong.
Optimism is great but have a plan B
It appears that our national coronavirus policy is optimism without a plan B. Every action I take, I look at the risk/reward ratio. I always wear a helmet when riding my bike. I always wear my seatbelt. I do not drive if I have had any alcohol in the last 8 hours. I always carry the highest value umbrella insurance policy offered. I am very conservative in my investments and my financial planning. Taking precautions against coronavirus costs next to nothing but would have a huge reward if needed. Just like people on the west coast should have an emergency kit for earthquake preparedness and people on the east coast should have hurricane preparedness kits, we all need to take simple cheap precautions against coronavirus. I am not interested in taking risks that have no benefit to me. Not having an emergency kit is an un-necessary risk.
I really hope that my predictions are laughably wrong and I end up looking like an idiot. Please, let me be wrong.